Summary: AU post-finale Literati - Jess never came to live with Luke in Stars Hollow and never met the Gilmores but Rory now needs some help to get accomodated in Philadelphia when she comes for a summer internship at The Inquirer. She loves to hate him, he hates to... well, like her a lot at first, and that's how they roll.

A/N: This is a backstory to Lady-Of-Victory-Rising's "Third Time's The Charm". Kàra was so awesome she gave me the idea to write and expand on it and I hope I'll be able to do her justice. Read the aforementioned fic for more background info (and really because it's fantastic). Oh, and I'm rating this T because Jess likes to swear just to annoy Rory.

Disclaimer: The Gilmore world is not mine. I still do whatever I like with it - how great is that?

"Could you give me two more hours to consider? I'll call you back with my decision... Yes. Thanks. Bye."

Rory Gilmore put her phone down and groaned in frustration.

"Any luck this time, babe?" Lorelai asked, putting a bowl of ice cream in front of her daughter.

"Not really. Why is it so hard to find a room in Philadelphia? It's either too big or too expensive or too far from the Inquirer or they want a contract for at least six months, three is not an option and it doesn't help that I can't take a look and just have to believe the pictures on the internet," she spit out in exasperation. "And this one seemed perfect!"

"So what's wrong?" Lorelai asked confusedly.

"It's available from next Friday."

"Five days after you should be moved in."

"Exactly."

"Honey, I know you'd rather not be a bother to anyone but it's all getting very last minute now and maybe you should take that number Luke left for you, call this Jess if Luke says that there's temporarily a spare room in that place that he lives in, and just have somewhere to stay before you can move to this place," Lorelai motioned to Rory's laptop, "'cause I'm not letting you go anywhere, even to the City of Brotherly Love, if you don't have a secured place to stay."

Rory smirked a little. "You're actually encouraging me to stay in one apartment with a guy, I never thought I'd live to see the day."

"It's Luke's nephew, that's almost family."

"You just like to brag about the fact that you're getting married," Rory grinned to her mother. "It's weird that we've never met him, isn't it?"

"Very weird. There must be some nasty family secret there. Luke talks to him every so often but he never comes to visit, not Luke and not even Liz. I wonder what that's about," Lorelai said, getting thoughtful.

"You are definitely not helping me feel any less awkward about this, Mom."

Lorelai's face was immediately split by a wicked grin. "There's another option!" she exclaimed.

"Oh yeah?"

"The Pennsylvania Gilmores! They've got a mansion about twenty miles away from the city. The last time I've been there was when I was... fourteen, I think. Aunt Murielle was a huge animal lover and kept two Vietnamese pigs in the house and regularly fed them with noodles with raspberry jam."

"Gross!"

"I know. Emily almost had a heart attack when she saw it and I almost sympathised with her. Anyway, she swore that she would never again visit dear Aunt Murielle, but you may have no other choice if you don't find another place to stay."

"I'm calling Jess," Rory stated decisively and reached for the phone again while Lorelai passed her a post-it with Jess Mariano – Truncheon Books and his number scribbled on it.

She dialled.

"Truncheon Books, Chris speaking."

"Hi, I'm looking for Jess Mariano," Rory started with a bit of uncertainty. She heard a muffled "Mariano, some chick for you," and an incomprehensible reply by someone she assumed was Jess.

"I don't think he can talk right now. He's smoking," came Chris's simple reply, as if that explained everything.

Rory frowned but decided to push it a bit more. "Well actually, my name is Rory Gilmore and this is kind of urgent. I'm Luke's... can you just mention Luke to him?" she said and waited until the man on the line repeated what she'd said.

"Hello," a different voice said.

"Hi, this is Rory Gilmore."

"Hey."

She noted he didn't have the decency to introduced himself. "So, I know you've talked to Luke yesterday-"

"Yup."

"...and he told you what my situation is and I'm calling because he said you have a room that I could temporarily crush in if I have trouble finding a place to stay in Philly. Now, the deal is that I found a place but I can only move in there on Friday and I'm starting my internship on Monday so the latest I have to arrive in the city is Sunday. So, if I could-"

"Okay," he cut her off.

"Okay?"

"Yeah, if you're not planning on leaving with our stereo-"

"Good, we're already establishing our relations based on trust."

"I'm sorry, am I supposed to trust you after a minute of a phone conversation?" he asked teasingly. She liked his voice. There was only one, very unsophisticated adjective that she could think of to describe it. Sexy.

"Well, we're almost family, it would be advisable," she replied, her tone also teasing.

"Sorry, I still think Luke's engagement is some kind of a joke. I mean, I know he's been pining for a Lorelai Gilmore for years, he let that much slip once, but for him to actually do something about it should qualify as a miracle."

It actually bothered her that he spoke of Luke with such condescension. In that moment, he started losing his freshly acquired brownie points. And it was going to get worse.

"You certainly do have a lot of faith in your uncle. I wonder how you know him so well since you never come to Stars Hollow."

"Oh, I do come every once in a while, I'm just kept under cover being the black sheep in the family and all. Anyway, if you can deal with three guys for a couple of days, one of whom hums The Smiths all the time," he emphasised, more for the benefit of someone else in his room than for her, "then, sure, you can crash here."

"You have someone humming The Smiths there?" she inquired, feeling a little smile tugging at her lips. That band was her most recent obsession. It almost filled the void in her life that Logan created by proposing and breaking up with her all of a sudden.

Of course, Mr. Mariano had no idea of the emotional importance of The Smiths to Miss Gilmore and answered in his usual, rather careless fashion. "Yes, and it's fucking killing me."

"The humming or The Smiths?"

"Both."

"How can The Smiths be possibly killing you?"

"Well, first of all, Morrissey can't sing." Dead. That's what Jess Mariano was in her mind.

"The man's a genius!"

"You're crazy." She knew she was, she just really didn't appreciate being told that by someone who never even met her.

"And you are cocky and have no taste in music."

"Ouch," he answered with a sarcastic undertone. "I've been told that before."

"Then there must be some truth in it, mustn't it?" she said pointedly. "Thanks for letting me crash, I'll be there on Sunday, probably around 3 p.m." she continued icily.

"You've got the address?"

"I'll get it from Luke. Bye."

Not waiting for his response, she hang up, put the phone down, glared at it briefly and soon was met with her mother's curious gaze.

"Hon... did you just get into an argument with the guy?"

"He offended Morrissey!" Rory exclaimed.

"Oh. That, indeed, calls for a guillotine," Lorelai confirmed dramatically.

"Lane would be proud of me," Rory said still exasperated, letting Lorelai's statement pass.

"Look at the bright side, at least he knew who Morrissey was."

"Are you defending him?"

"No, of course not. I'm just pointing out that it seemed like a very weird conversation. You just bickered like you've known each other for years."

"It just... sort of... came naturally, I guess."

"I've been saying that about me and Luke for years, see how that turned out."

Rory looked at her mother thoughtfully. "Mom, are you seriously making implications about me and Luke's annoying nephew? That's just sick. And the guy is awful, really. He smokes, swears, condescends and doesn't like The Smiths."

Lorelai gave her daughter a sad smile, one filled with motherly concern. "He sounds terrible," she said with a shadow of mocking in her voice. "No, fruit of my loins, I'm just saying that it's been over a year since you and Logan broke up and it's about time for you to move on."

"I have moved on," Rory argued. "I'm over Logan. I just haven't met anyone... you know, compatible enough since then."

The statement earned a sceptical look and an "okay" from the elder Gilmore.

"Can we stop discussing my love life now?"

"Or lack thereof?" Lorelai added helpfully.

Rory only groaned in response and picked up the phone to confirm that she wanted the apartment from Friday.

As embarrassing as it was, her curiosity took over and she googled him later that night. She already knew from Luke that he published one novel but it wasn't anything mainstream and she found some rambling about The Subsect on some blog. Not very helpful. Truncheon's website was a disgrace. The only Jess Mariano she found on facebook was a female from Nevada. The secrets of the Life And Death Brigade seemed easily accessible in comparison to information on Jess Mariano. It frustrated her, she was a journalist and she wasn't even able to track a person, a writer to that. No picture anywhere. But he was Luke's nephew after all and Liz's son, she knew she should be expecting blue eyes, dark blonde to light brown hair and plaid. Definitely plaid. A baseball cap would probably be an exaggeration.

Not that any of it mattered.

She was going to stay with Jess and his roommates for five days, then preferably get away from his annoying presence.

What mattered was that she was going to spend three months in Philadelphia on an internship at The Inquirer, one of the top newspapers in the country. It was an opportunity of a lifetime and she wasn't going to waste any time thinking about boys at the moment. No. They were only trouble anyway.

Reasoning like that, she ducked under her bed to select some books to take with her and read over the summer.